Nearpod

Nearpod is an awesome technology tool to be used in any 21st century classroom. It is a great way to get students connected with the teacher through lessons presented online. Nearpod allows the teacher to upload any kind of document or presentation that they wish to use for a lesson and then intertwine extra things within it. This makes the lesson more interactive and gets the students engaged with the lessons. Things that the teacher can insert are quizzes, drawing its, polls, fill in the blanks, and much more. Nearpod also has a VR side that can take the students to many destinations for virtual field-trips. It is very user friendly and can easily be collaborated with Google classroom or other online class settings. Another cool thing about this app is that the teacher can choose to either post the lessons as assignments or even cast the lessons to all the devices for the students to actively follow along. Therefore, Nearpod is great for a flipped classroom setting or to use within the actual walls of a classroom. This tool also comes with the option of pre-made, standard aligned lessons. It is accessible from any kind of device and has both a free version and a paid version. With these great features of Nearpod, a teacher can use it many different ways in the classroom. Some of these include the following:

           1. For a post assessment and immediate feedback from the students

2. Flipped classroom setting

3. Student follow along

4. Homework assignments

5. Makeup assignments

6. Guided reading

7. assigning and giving directions for group projects

8. Presenting group projects

9. Students can leave questions for the teacher to go back and look at if the answer is not known right off. 

Overall, there are endless opportunities with Nearpod. If you can think of a lesson, Nearpod can probably assist in some way. It may not be great for every lesson but any lesson can be greater with it! Connect your students inside or outside of the class with interactive lessons and more student feedback. Check out the video below for more information! 

Student Led Conferences with Digital Portfolios

Have you ever thought about doing student led conferences? In case you have, but are
still on the fence, I hope to persuade you. Instead of the teacher conducting conferences with the parents (and there are still times that he/she should), there are a lot of benefits to letting the students conduct the meetings with their own parents. This allows the students to take charge, know their own goals, and share their academic progress. To start, the students get to choose how they will welcome the parents to the meeting. From there they will discuss their goals and ho they are doing. Students can use their digital portfolio as a means of sharing with the parents. These can be created through apps like Sesame and Seesaw. With both of thee apps, students take either pictures or videos of their work and submit those snapshots to keep track of their progress. The students can then share either Qr codes or links with their parents so that they can follow along. So how do you prepare your students for this conference? The teacher needs to make sure the students know what to expect. This can be done by first creating an example presentation. It is good to run through everything they will talk about and even have them practice in front of the class or with a partner on what they will say. The students may also have a script or outline that they can use during the conference. These conferences are beneficial for the students at school and at home. This will help the students and parents have things to talk about where as most students usually go home and say "I don't know" when the parents ask what they have learned. In the conference, the parents and students can not only cover what progress has been made, but also make new goals so that everyone is on the same page. Overall having students led conferences encourages the students to take responsibility in their learning, gain speaking skills (great for future use), express themselves, and self assess. I would like to use this in my future classroom because I also think it will increase the odds of parent participation and let them know where they can help while being involved in their child's education. Below is an example of a kindergarten student leading a conference.

    

STEAM For Grades 3-6

STEAM in grades 3-6 is using the subjects of science, technology, engineering, art, and math all simultaneously. So why use STEAM in your classroom? STEAM is a great way to incorporate hands on learning and get students engaged. It is also helpful in getting students experience that prepares them for real world experiences. Students learn characteristics that will help to be good future citizens and ultimately will learn to be better problem solvers. Students can lead their investigations and the learning that will be done. Teachers should only be there as a guidance when help is required. As the teacher, it is also important to remember to cover any needed background knowledge for the students to be able to do the lesson, and to be sure that each lesson includes all five elements of STEAM. When doing STEAM, students are not just talking through projects and problems but putting action to words to test and discover. Keep in mind, for this kind of lesson there will be a high noise level and that is ok! The teacher will need to consider how much time will be needed and what materials will need to be provided. When looking to create your STEAM lesson, it is good to remember that all the standards with an * are the STEAM standards. Some STEAM projects might include building weather resistant structures and testing/comparing each one, building a dam that can hold back water inside a container, or creating a device that will filter pollution out of water. Some teachers have set aside a particular area in the room for such projects called STEAM spaces or maker spaces. I think this is a great idea should you have the room and resources to do so. As of now I do not have my own classroom, but plan to have a space set aside in my room for these particular lessons if possible. I love the thought of dedicating part of our  space to make sure it is included in the education. I also am a bit of a neat freak and the more organization, the better! Watch the below video for more information!

           

STEAM Activities for Pre-K to 2nd Grade

To think of STEAM, most would picture an older elementary classroom doing science projects and more advanced or involved work. But STEAM can actually be done with any grade level, even as young as Pre-K. Obviously, this would look a little different for the younger grades, but yet still very possible. When doing STEAM with younger grades, it has a lot to do with getting them to think outside of the box. You want the younger students to begin learning how to think critically and on their own at a young age so that when they get to the older grades, it is not a hard concept to grasp and they are more successful. If a foundation is laid in the younger grades, it will build a positive connection to their later years and students will continuously have an active role in their learning. STEAM also has a positive impact on dual language learners by giving them a hands on experience and a new approach to learning. What may not get comprehended through words is more likely to be comprehended through the use of active learning. Students naturally have a problem solving instinct that will kick start a desire to participate in these types of lessons. There are many resources on how to incorporate STEAM in the early childhood, elementary grades. Just simply googling or looking up on Pinterest some ideas, will provide an abundance. Of course, you always want to make sure whatever you do lines up with your standard! AT this young age, there are many "STEAM" related activities that the students do just by playing each day. Their imagination in itself at that age can be critical thinking

in how to build or maybe even draw a picture. The technology part can be including the use of anything that makes learning easier, such as crayons, a ruler, pencil grip, or eraser. The math part could be things like counting, patterns, or organizing. Those are the two things that might especially be thought of as older subjects, but are just as easily included in the younger grades. STEAM is just as vital as the other subjects and should be included in our young learners education.   

Virtual Fieldtrips

It is common knowledge that virtual reality setting are a big hit in today's society. That is no different for the classroom, and in fact can enhance a lot of our learning journey. Students enjoy going virtual for education just as the do for home enjoyment. By bringing virtual reality to the classroom, schools are able to go on virtual field-trips to places that otherwise would never be possible. Virtual field-trips provide the chance to explore people, places, and things, without physically going. But just knowing that there is a way and not knowing how to access it can be a lot to process. Before beginning to look for the best way to bring other parts of the world to life, there are a few things to think about. What are you wanting your students to do? What are you wanting them to take away? What is the over all goal? How can you assess the students? Will you need to differentiate? If you are like me, the first thought that comes to mind when you think of doing virtual field-trips is the cost. How am I going to afford product and programs that will do what I need for my students. There are actually a lot of cheaper resources that can be used to incorporate this awesome concept in your class. Some resources to check into if you are wanting to do this with your class are Google goggles/Google Lens, Field-trip zoom, Discovery Education, Google expeditions, and You visit. There are VR sets for as little as five dollars on amazon and many VR apps are free. Doing virtual field-trips can be of great assistance in multiple areas of the classroom. One way I plan to use it in my future classroom is by providing some schema for students who are less fortunate to experience some of the things we may talk about. It is always helpful if students, no matter the background, have a little bit of prior knowledge to build upon when entering a lesson. It can also be used as a reward at the end of a unit. Maybe you just got done studying an animal unit and you want to throw in more about it. You could have the students visit say the largest zoo in the world. There are so many ways to tie such a thing into the classroom and bring a whole new aspect on the things students are learning about.

*One thing a classmate of mine mentioned in her recent project about this subject, was that someone told her they would like to visit inside the human body as a virtual field-trip and related it to the magic school bus. Who knew a tv show that we used to watch, would one day actually be a concept involved in our real life classrooms.*      

Watch this video for an example of a virtual field-trip to Amazon Rainforest!

Higher Order Questioning In the Classroom

What makes a great teacher? 

Can you answer that? Is there a single correct answer? I would say no. Therefore this question is considered an essential question. Essential questions are also known as higher order questions. Higher order questions are designed to get students engaged, get them thinking critically, and create discussion. They can be be great openers for lessons, or even for finishing a lesson. With these types of questions, there are no single correct answers. They are open ended and purposeful. Generally discussion is created and opinion are shared, but everything must be backed by evidence. Anyone's opinion can change at any time, but any point made must be backed by evidence. One thing that a classmate of mine said when speaking on this topic recently was that even the teacher may not have a correct answer or a solid answer and that's ok. This was an eye opener for me, because even though I knew about essential questions and that it was ok to go unanswered by the students, it was always in the back of my mind that the teacher would still know the answer. It can be hard to let go and admit that we do not know the answer, but our students will grow the most when they learn to think for themselves and ask questions. As the teacher, we should have a direction for where we want the questions to lead, but we should not be quick to bud in and start thinking for the students. Everyone has a different take on the world and that can bring a lot of different views to the table. Another very important thing when asking questions in the classroom is wait time. Give  your students the chance to actually think about what you just asked before chiming in and directing them.

EMBRACE THE SILENCE! The awkwardness will not hurt anyone. In fact, I guarantee it will help! We as teachers need to take a step back, let the students talk, let them ask, and let them answer. Figure out what you are wanting them to know and hand the reigns over. Watch your students take charge and blossom. Once they get out of their comfort zone, they will admit it is what they want to do too!
Check out the video below for more information on higher order questioning!

   

A Flipped Classroom?

      To stop and think about a traditional classroom, we know that the common phrase is "I do, we do, you do." Even now, in 2019, as I have gone through the education program the last couple years, that has been a constantly appearing phrase. With a flipped classroom though, the momentum seems to be turned around to "You do, we do, I do." A flipped classroom is not for everyone and may not be a thing you use all the time in your class, but it does have some great perks about it. When flipping a classroom, it gets the students viewing elements of a lesson ahead of time before the lesson is ever taught. This allows for many more benefits in the classroom. One would be the chance for kids to bring prior knowledge or information to talk about when it comes time for the lesson. In turn this creates more discussion and with discussion comes learning. It can also allow for more one on one time between the teacher and students. If there is not as much time being spent in front of the class the teacher can spend that extra time with individuals and meeting their specific needs. There is also the perk of having constant access to the information that is viewed at home if the teacher allows it to stay, depending on the tool used for instruction. Although this approach has more positives than negatives, one thing that could play a big factor in whether or not you do it, is making sure all the kids in your class have a way to access the internet from home. Should this be a problem, it would either be wise to avoid the flipped classroom approach or have an engaging tech free activity that portrays the same information.

     To use this technique in your classroom will take a lot of explaining to your class before smooth implementation is possible. Not only will you need to come up with guidelines to explain what is expected, but also come up with a form of assessment to be sure the assignment was completed. There are SO many different resources that can assist in the use of a flipped classroom. A great video tool to use would be EdPuzzle, where you can assign videos to your students, give them quiz questions, and keep up with how much they have watched and how many correct they answered.